For the Love of a Lily
by The Creature
Summary: This is the story of Lily Luna Potter who is dramatic, childish, contemplative, and more than a little odd and her quest to make her own path in life.
1. Pre-Hogwarts 1

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, had just been kicked out of his own child's birth! Apparently he was distracting his wife, Ginny, during an especially tough labour. As he paced around the waiting area he thought about all he had done to help the wizarding race and he wasn't even allowed to see his third child's first breath. This was outragious and completely out of line and he would not stand for this. Harry was heading angrily for the the door of the room his wife and the Weaselys were in when he was stopped in his tracks by the healer who came out and announced to him that "It's a girl!"


	2. Pre-Hogwarts 2

Lily Luna Potter grew up to be a headstrong girl. She was always doing things her own way, even when her way was obviously crazy. Nobody had even been there to protect her when she first flew a non-training broomstick when she was seven. It seemed she had taken a page from her mother's book and had begun stealing her brothers' brooms to practice on at night. When she was caught she had just fallen off of Albus's new Firestar and had skinned her knee. But, all the same, she was caught grinning as she mounted the broom again.


	3. Pre-Hogwarts 3

Somehow Harry Potter had either 'passed on' the ability to speak parcletongue to his only daughter, or she had received it 'naturally' from an ancient family member. However she had been given her ability to talk to snakes it did not matter much in her mind, she was still found on multiple equations playing with a garden snake in her mother's flower bed, whispering to the serpent tanks at the zoo, and even being so bold as to walk down to Knockturn Alley when she was eleven years old to buy herself a 'proper' snake.


	4. Pre-Hogwarts 4

Lily Luna's wand was NOT ordinary. Firstly, it was long, 15" long to be exact. Secondly, it was almost unyielding making it a polar opposite of her father's, whose own wand could be described as 'nice and supple'. It was crafted out of Yew, which was interesting but not in the least bit extraordinary except for the wood's correlation with the wand once held by her father's enemy, the evil Lord Voldemort. But, perhaps the strangest thing about Lily Luna Potter's wand was that it was one of the very few British-made wands that possessed a Thestral tail hair as its core. Her father, though taken aback, did congratulate his little girl telling her of all the good she would one day do with that very wand. He went on to ask Mr. Ollivander more about the wand that had chosen his eleven year old daughter and was rewarded with a story of the extremely elderly man's father and previous owner of the wand shop and how he used many more cores then those chosen by the current Mr. Ollivander. The wandmaker's father had been a fan of Peacock feather cores but also had used the tail hairs of Kelpies, Thestrals, Sphinxes, and Griffins. Even though they were outdated in his opinion, Mr. Ollivander had saved a few of his late father's stronger wands 'just in case'.

When Lily and her father finally left Ollivander's they were met by her Uncle Ron and her Aunt Hermione and their family. While Hermione commented on how great Yew is as a dueling wood, Ron merely said that his niece would win every duel for Gryffindore unless she was against his Rosey who was in Ravenclaw.

Rose, though, rolled her eyes and said to the adults, "Lily Luna is not going to be in Gryffindore, I mean, she's brave but she is no Lion."


	5. Pre-Sorting 1

"Be a good girl Lily." Ginny Potter said before kissing her youngest daughter goodbye and watched as Lily turned towards the awaiting train.

"Hey Lils!" cried Lily's cousin Lucy, who was four years older than the youngest of the Potter/Weasely clan, "Don't get on the train yet, I've got something for you!"

Lily turned and smiled at her cousin who would be returning for her final year of something she called "Key Stage 4" later that same week in September. Even though Lucy had a lot to do to get herself ready for her own school year, she was always there to see her cousins and her older sister Molly off to Hogwarts. Despite the complications of knowing that you can't perform magic while the rest of your family can, Lucy lived a fairly normal life for a non-magical, British fifteen year old girl. As her mother was a muggle, being a squib was not as hard for Lucy as one might think and her family lived in a good sized flat in the primarily muggle part of the city.

"I bought you something at the London Graphic Centre," Lucy said to her eleven year old cousin with a smile and brought a plastic shopping bag from behind her back and handed it to Lily who peeked inside and looked back up at her cousin a bit confused when she saw what new muggle object Lucy had picked out for her this time around.

"What are these?" Lily asked the older girl who laughed

"The rainbow stick are called coloured pencils and the pad of paper is just that, a pad of paper," Lucy explained, "You use the pencils like you do a quill except that they don't need ink and when they get dull you just put the pointy end in the hole in the back of the box and twist the pencil to the right until it's sharp again."

"Alright," Lily said but was drowned out by the sound of the Hogwarts Express's whistle telling all the students not yet on the train to climb aboard or get left behind to find another route to school, without, of course, the use of any flying cars as the use of them had been clearly prohibited by multiple laws that illegalized enchanting any muggle artifacts.

"Well, you better get going," Lucy said, a hint of sadness in her voice, "Let me help you with your trunk."


	6. Pre-Sorting 2

Lily Luna Potter found herself an empty compartment on the train and sat quietly fingering her new gifts. She finally decided to investigate if what Lucy had said was true and if they really did work like quills. Lily thought about just using a bit of the familiar parchment she had inside her trunk to conduct the experiment with but quickly decided to use the flat, clean cut, crisp, white muggle paper that Lucy had given her when she remembered that she had packed her writing supplies along with her textbooks first so she would have to go rummaging through the mess of black robes, her muggle clothing, school skirts, toiletries, magazines, and the snacks she had stashed to get to it. Lily wrinkled her eyebrows with dislike at the crinkling sound made by the plastic shopping bag as she pulled out the muggle paper and placed it open to the first clean white sheet on her lap. She picked a jade that resembled the colour of her father and her brother Albus's eyes and placed the pointy end on the paper and dragged it across the white sheet. Lily gasped as a line of colour not unlike the one that the pencil in her right hand advertised appeared behind the tip of the wooden muggle object as it was dragged across the white paper. She took out another pencil and noticed that the coloured stick had words written on it in small, shiny silver print.

"Magenta," Lily read aloud and then drew a circle on the muggle paper and replaced the used pencil just to reach for another one which was called "Yellow."

Lily continued her little game until she had used every single pencil and her paper had no room for another marking. Disappointed, Lily sat in her seat and felt a bit bored and slightly hungry. She had not noticed the old trolley woman come by during her little game with her new muggle toys and felt too lazy to go looking through her trunk to find some of the snacks she had stashed near the middle of the mess of clothing and school supplies. It was then that she realized where she had seen the coloured pencils before. How many times had Lily watched her cousin Lucy create masterpieces with the exact same type of muggle tools that Lily now had in her possession was unknown to the eleven year old but, one thing was for certain. Lily Luna Potter now knew what she was supposed to do with the coloured pencils and pad of white paper.


	7. Pre-Sorting 3

As she pulled her trunk behind her out of the Hogwarts Express Lily was excited, that was, until she saw the boats. Now, Lily Luna Potter had never had any trauma that concerned a boat, nor had she almost drowned, seen anyone drown, been in a flood, been attacked by a shark, or been infected by the rabies virus but, she had always been afraid of water. Since she was a baby she would scream and cry without stopping during her baths which was at first chalked up to normal infant behavior until she turned five and her often tearful aversion to water continued. At age eleven, though, she had become tolerant of showering, though not bathing; rain, which was good as it was not an uncommon occurance in the United Kingdom; drinking water, another relief to her parents; and water that was clear and did not go up to her mid calves. But, sitting water that could reach kilometers over her head if she were to fall in was another story. That kind of water was terrifying. So, Hagrid was asked by her father to keep her feeling safe while she was on a boat. The old burly man picked the shaking girl up easily and sat her down next to him in his own boat fit for a half-giant and one stick thin, 1.2192 meters tall girl.


	8. The Sorting

Potter, Lily was niether the first nor the last of the names called, but her's was the most intently watched and listened to out of all of the new first years' sortings. She was, for Heaven's sakes, the youngest of the three Potters (not to mention the entire Weasley/Potter Clan) and the only daughter of The Boy Who Lived. So when the hat, never once touching her dark red hair screamed "Slytherin!" it was just another only for her. She was the only Slytherin Potter ever. She was the only Slytherin Weasley ever. In fact, she was the only non-Gryffindor Weasley or Potter in history, well, other than Albus and Rose who were in Ravenclaw House. But, even though Lily's Sorting was extremely short she sat on the stool for an extremely long time. The only reason she finally stood up was because of the gentle hands of Professor Hollybeak who had taken the Hat off of Lily's head already and after waiting for the little girl to join her classmates at the Slytherin Table to no avail decided to take matters into his own hands.  
"Miss Potter," Hollybeak whispered without even having to crouch down for, even with the tiny girl sitting down, the Professor's head was about level with her own, "Why don't you join your new Slytherin chums?"  
Lily only shrugged  
"Do you think Slytherin is a bad House?" Hollybeak asked her kindly  
Lily shrugged again  
"Well," Hollybeak started, searching for something to see that what was on her mind was simply not true, "I was in Slytherin, am I a bad wizard."  
This time Lily shook her head  
"Miss Potter, you have been given an amazing chance to prove that Slytherin House is just as able as any of the four Houses to produce a witch or wizard who can change the wizarding world for the better. Now," Hollybeak patted her back, "Go and meet your new classmates."  
So Lily Luna did just that.


	9. First Year 1

"Come along first years!" Called a Slytherin girl from the end of the Table. She looked about sixteen and had a Prefect badge proudly displayed on the left hand side of her robes right over her heart. She had a slim; muscular build and dark brown hair that was slightly curly and held together in a high ponytail on the back of her head. She had sunburned cheeks and nose and dull brown eyes. She looked the new Slytherin students up and down as if she was sizing them up and then sharply said, "Follow me."

On the way to the Slytherin Common Room the Prefect who was leading them told them about the school and herself.  
"My name is Morgan Bole. I am a Sixth Year, Prefect, and Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch Team as well as being a Beater like my dad. As you can tell, I have had a very successful time so far at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but, it was not easy, nor will it be for you." She then began down a long, spiraliling staircase, "Watch your step, we only have ten first years a house and we don't want to lose any on the first night now would we?"  
Lily carefully made her way down the stairs and shivered as the air gradually grew colder. Another first year girl who was wearing too much makeup and large, neon orange, plastic hoop earings took notice of Lily's discomfort and whispered to her, "It's cold isn't it?"  
Lily looked at the girl who had dark black hair and pale skin and nodded yes,  
"My name's Cassiopeiae Burke, and you're Lily Potter right?"  
"Yes, but, I like Lily Luna better."  
"Lily Luna then," the girl said cheerilly, "You can just call me Cass by the way. At home I get way to much 'Cassiopeiae this' and 'Cassiopeiae that', I think my name's really a mouthful don't you?"  
"I suppose so."  
"It's pretty cool that you're in Slytherin! I knew, first time I saw you in person at the platform talking to your mum that we were destined to be the best of mates!"  
"You don't talk like a Slytherin." Lily said bluntly causing the girl to laugh.  
"My family's not much into the whole _tradition_ part of Slytherin as it used to be. If one thing's for sure, even purebloods can live in an estate."  
"Isn't that the kind of place you all live?" Lily asked Cass, confused  
"Not like a rich estate, I live in a flat."  
"Oh." Lily replied softly

"Here we are," Morgan said when they reached what seemed to be a dead end at a large, solid looking, stone wall.  
"But, that's a wall." An oddly sorted muggleborn boy pointed out.  
"Yeah, it is, that's what makes this so cool!" Morgan turned to one of the younger prefects who was standing nearest her, "Taffy, your time to shine!"  
There was scattered laughter among the elder Slytherin prefects as a girl with limp, wet-looking, mousy-brown hair stepped forward. Despite the laughter, the girl had her head held high and as she walked by Morgan to stand in front of the stone wall her thickly accented words were heard loud and clear.  
"My name is Medeia Cadwallader and you disrespect your own House of Bole by using that commoner word for a witch of my class."  
"Just say the password you idiot!"  
"_Colubrinus_," Media said and a large tunnel appeared in the wall  
"Remember the current password as it will change every fortnight." Morgan said, "The new password will be posted on the notice board found in the common room."

"Welcome to the Slytherin common room" Morgan said proudly as she showed them the green hued, ornately decorated area. "you can study, socialize, or rest on the sofas. The fireplace is never to be put out for reasons I do not think I have to add."  
The shivering first years took notice of the grand fireplace topped off with snake skulls on the mantelpiece. There were a good number of black and dark green leather couches with buttons around the room and an ancient looking grand piano in one of the corners. A few of the walls had tall bookcases laden with all types of manuscripts reaching up all the way to the ceiling.  
"Now this is where we must split up," A seventh year Slytherin boy wearing a prefect badge said to the group, "All boys come with me and all the girls go with Morgan."  
Morgan led the four first year girls away from the six first year boys and towards where the grand piano sat, "This way girls, there is a doorway here, it only opens if you are a girl so you are all fine, no boys are going to sneak in and steal your nickers."

That night Lily Luna fell asleep in a room with her three classmates to the sound of the lake water splashing against the windows.


	10. First Year 2

Lily's brothers and cousins confronted her in the school library where she was with another Slytherin first year girl who had long black hair and a face reminiscent of a witch who's portrait hung near the entrance to the Potions Classroom and who was always saying things like "Be nasty to the Mudbloods" and cackling. The two girls were hunched over each other's History of Magic notes which they were comparing.  
Molly Weasley glared at the other Slytherin girl saying "Bugger off!" and flashing her new, prized Gryffindor Prefect badge. Lily glared at her before whispering to the other girl that she would see her later in the Slytherin Common Room to finish studying for an upcoming pop quiz that they heard about from one of the fourth years who 'found out' about it in Divination. The group watched the other girl walk out of the library in a bit of a huff and looking a bit nervous about having a pop quiz so early in the school year.  
"Who was she?" James asked Lily who was still glaring at Molly.  
"Her name is Cassiopeiae Burke; she's my best friend, other than Sashi." Lily Luna replied fondly. But, her family's response was not so fond at all.  
"What the hell do you think you are doing Lily Luna Potter!" yelled Albus, causing more than a few heads to turn towards where the noise had come from and brought forth an irritated snarl from the Hogwarts Librarian Madame Pince.  
"Calm down Al." James put a hand on his younger brother's shoulder.  
"Yes," Rose agreed, "We are in a library; make your point if you must but, this time, whisper."  
"Yeah, none of us want to desecrate Rose's place of worship," Joked Fred Weasley who's Twin sister Roxanne covered her mouth so as not to snort loudly at her brother's humour. Rose simply scowled back at her cousins.  
"I'm not in control of which house I am meant to be in." Lily replied straining to keep her eyes dry and her smirk in place, "If I recall correctly, daddy said that Slytherin is not a bad house and that the bravest man ever was in Slytherin."  
"You could have chosen Gryffindor or Ravenclaw or even blooming Hufflepuff." whispered Albus, still a bit loudly.  
Lily pretended to ponder this, in truth she was waiting for her mouth to work again, and then said carefully as not to break down in tears right there in front of the entire library and all her family still attending Hogwarts with her, "But brother dearest, I ruddy well hate the other houses. And you want to know why?" without waiting for a reply she continued quickly so as to finish soon so she could get to a girls' room and lock herself in a stall quickly, "Those of you who are cats shed and snore; You birds poop all over everything and decide my hair is a good place to land and give birth, not to mention I don't find worms appetizing in the least; and Hufflepuffs are squidgy as chocolate cream cakes."  
Lily then smiled at her speechless brothers and cousins and waved them goodbye as she skipped off immediately letting the tears run down her face once she was out of sight.


	11. First Year 3

"Nice of you to join us Lily; Miss Burke" Professor Longbottom nodded in turn to the redhead and then to the raven haired girl

"Sorry for being so late Professor," said Cassiopeiae loudly, "It's just, me and Lily were stopped outside of Potions by Peeves and he starts making fun of Lily's hair, you see. So I'm telling him to come off it and shut his stinking, good for nothing gob when Daisy Hooper decides to make an appearance and then there was this whole thing and long story short, it ain't our falts."

"Yes, well, why don't you both just take your usual places and let me finish my lecture?" Professor Longbottom stumbled over his words somewhat nervously in his attempt to stop any further speeches coming from Cassiopeiae Burke

"Yes Professor Longbottom." Muttered the black haired girl as she slumped over to where Lily was already waiting for her

"Learn to control your mouth," Lily hissed at Cassiopeiae as she took notes on the lecture in her unreadable chicken scratch

"Only when you learn to control yours." Cassiopeiae hissed back as she copied Lily's scrawl in her own elegant script, "What's that letter?"

"That's an 'R'," Lily muttered back quietly without pausing

This well-rehearsed system went on until Professor Longbottom gave them their homework and they were all excused to go.

Once outside of the Greenhouse, Cassiopeiae began to talk more about her timetables and began asking Lily what her own looked like.

"Um…probably very similar to your own," Lily said in response as she took the parchment in question out of her bag, "We share many of the same classes."

"Alright!" Cassiopeiae said as she grabbed the item out of Lily's hand and began to read it allowed in a voice, somewhat reminiscent of their Headmaster's, "Name: Lily Luna Potter; Year: First; House: Slytherin! Go snake sister! So, classes...wait! Is this why I never see you during the break except at three on Wednesdays?"

Cassiopeiae was pointing at the four extracurricular courses printed on Lily's timetable.

"Honestly Lily Luna!" Cassiopeiae huffed, "Why are you taking Art, Muggle Art, Muggle Music, and Ghoul Studies?"

"Because," Lily ticked each answer off of another finger, "I want to make art that moves and talks and stuff; my cousin Lucy is a squib and she makes better muggle art than any normal art I've ever seen and she gave me art supplies from Muggle London; my granddad paid me 3 Knuts to take Muggle Music; and Ghoul Studies just sounded cool and I wanted to be able to say that I'm taking it."

"So, you have," Cassiopeiae glanced down at the parchment, "Ghoul Studies starting soon in the Turris Magnus. You better hurry and get there as fast as you can!"

"Au Revoir Lady Burke!" Lily said in her best imitation of a French accent waving at her best friend before running off, leaving her timetable with the black haired girl by accident.

"Pip Pip Cheerio Madame Potter!" Cassiopeiae said mockingly after her friend

* * *

"Lily!" squealed a pretty Hufflepuff girl as soon as Lily opened the door to the classroom right off Serpentine Corridor

"Hello Sharon." Lily greeted awkwardly as the cheerful girl ran up to her and gave her a big bear hug

"Um…Sharon…you're choking me…" Lily gasped from within the blonde girl's python-like embrace

"Oops!" Sharon said, still squealing but, thankfully, letting go of the now blue redhead "Sorry Lily!"

"S'Okay." Lily replied with a dismissive wave of her hand, "So, what do you think we're gonna study today?"

"Professor's bringing in Peeves," said Arnold Creevey dryly from the other side of the room

"Why Peeves?" Lily frowned and crossed her arms childishly

"Because he's the only Poltergeist at Hogwarts." Mitsu said, rolling her eyes at how little her fellow first years seemed to know

"Shut up Chang!" ordered Lily's fellow Slytherin, Gerard Farley from a desk at the back of the classroom from which he and Alexander Girnwood were always making noise.

"What the hell do you know you homophobic bastard!" Mitsu replied angrily flipping her black braid with a violent whip of her head

"You use that word to make everyone back down when you know you can't win against them!" Farley snorted, "But read my lips Chang; I DO NOT CARE IF YOU HAVE TWO MUMS!"

At a loss for words, Mitsu sputtered at the Slytherin boy angrily

"Miss Chang, have you forgotten how to speak?" came a cold, though amused voice from directly behind Lily.

Lily spun to face a tall, thin man with wire spectacles which had no lenses and seemed homemade. He wore maroon and electric blue robes with neon orange shoes that curled into twists at the toes. His head was bald excepting his thin strings of remaining hair all twisted into a sad, limp braid in the back.

"Hello Professor" the first year students all chose their seats in the classroom

"Hello students!" Professor exclaimed with a small smile, "Ready to be peeved?"


	12. First Year 4

Lily Luna Potter was crying in the unrestricted part of the dungeons when James found her.

"What's wrong Lil?" James asked her as he knelt down beside his little sister and placed a hand on one of her shoulders

"Dad and mum sent me a letter asking me about how I am and…and…" She looked up and her hazel eyes met those of her older brother, "they don't know yet."

James looked down at the girl with understanding, "Mum and dad don't know that you're in Slytherin." It wasn't a question.

The eleven year old girl looked down once again as more tears began to fall down her cheeks, shaking her head, "I-I-I thought that you or Al-Al-Al-Albus would t-t-t-tell them."

"You know that we can't do that for you Lily," James sighed and wrapped his arms around his little sister who had begun shaking from the force of her tears, "You've got to be brave and face your fears…or else…or else they'll come back to haunt you."

"But that's just it James! I'm _not _brave!" Lily struggled out of her eldest brother's arms and looked at him with so much fear and anger in her eyes that James almost turned away…almost, "If I were brave I'd be in Gryffindor! But I'm not! I'm a coward James." She sighed, defeated, "and I suppose, well, it is very logical to assume, that I always have been."

"Don't say that Lil. You may be a Slytherin. _Maybe_ you're a little bit too cunning at times. And _maybe_ green does bring out that Weasley red in your hair. But, I swear, Lily Luna Potter, no matter _how_ good you are at potions, and when I say good, I mean _scary _good! You could probably give Grandmother Potter a run for her money, if she was still alive and you definitely beat out Rose and Albus in the before mentioned subject and Aunt Hermione's ego is gonna be shot down dead when she sees all of the Outstandings that you're gonna get when we see our scores next September. No matter how much you seem to love these freezing dungeons and despise Gryffindor Tower, where everything is nice warm and cozy and perfectly blinding-"

"James, are you going anywhere with this?"

"Oh! Sorry Lil. I was just trying to tell you that, no matter what, you will always be Lily Luna Potter, my little sister." Lily smiled a watery smile at him and he continued, "And anyone who's brave enough to have a screaming match with mum is the bravest person in the world in my book."

"You think?" Lily asked James

"Hey, little sister, have I ever steered you wrong?" James chuckled

"Well," Lily got very serious very quickly, "there was that one time that you and Albus told me that I was a sure bet Gryffindor."

"Well, I guess that one, teensy-tiny, little instance…"

"Are you kidding James?" Lily elbowed her brother in the ribs, "You said I was the most Gryffindoriest Potter ever born!"

"Yeah…um…boy was I wrong!"

"Yep…"

"But listen, Lily Luna, this time I am not wrong. This time everything I say is correct and, this time, this time I have proof!"

"And what proof is that?"

"You're Harry bloody Potter's daughter! Come on Lily!" James expected a bigger reaction from his little sister but she only looked at him like he was stating something incredibly obvious.

"Of course I'm Harry Potter's daughter, that's dad's name, but I don't see what it has to do with anything."

"Merlin's Pants Lily!" James gasped, "You don't know, do you?"

"Know what? And you know that mum hates us cursing…"

"Enough about the cursing Lily!" James then whispered as if it would wound his pride if anyone that happened upon them in the dungeons heard him, "And please don't tell mum I said an M phrase in front of you."

"You know I won't James."

"Alright, well, anyways," James continued, "You should look up dad and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione and even mum in the Library."

"Um, okay," Lily mumbled, "Don't know if I'll find anything of interest…"

"Oh, I assure you Lily," James replied with a grin, "The interest is great with this one."

"Lucy's been showing you more muggle films, hasn't she?"

"That was from something called 'Star Battles' or 'Star Tussles'…"

"You mean _Star Wars_?" Lily asked her eldest brother dryly

James nodded, "Yeah, how did you know?"

"Lucy's my favorite cousin," Lily replied with a role of her eyes, "She shows me every muggle film that she finds a reference to in muggle society."

"Oh."

"So, I'll owl mum and dad back about my Sorting…" Lily sighed but made no effort to stand up

"That sounds like the best idea you've had all day." James said with a smirk

"I've actually had some pretty genius ideas today…" Lily teased him

"I wouldn't expect anything less than genius from you Lil." He said, smiling down at her

The two siblings sat in the unrestricted part of the dungeons for some time. Neither of them spoke until Lily finally decided to break the longstanding silence between them.

"James?"

"What is it Lil?"

"Did you mean it when you said that green brings out the colour of my hair?" Lily smiled at him with her still slightly red-rimmed eyes

The fourth year was a bit taken aback but smiled and said, "Oh, definitely! The only thing that Gryffindor red has ever done with our cousins' heads is clash!"


	13. First Year 5

"Um…Madam Pince?" Lily Luna Potter tried to get the librarian's attention

"Yes Miss Potter," The older woman answered without taking her hawk-like eyes off the pages of her large, leather bound book even for a second, "What is it that you need?"

"I was…um…wondering if…" Lily began, stuttering

"Well?" Madam Pince turned her beady eyed glare upon the small, Slytherin first year, "Spit it out!"

Lily took a deep breath to calm herself in front of the intimidating woman and was about to speak when Cass cut into the conversation.

"Right, Madam Pince, me best mate Lily Luna here is in the mood to get genned up on her parents and other fam members in these ol' dusty books. And, whilst she could have just asked me 'bout why her dad is so important to the whole entire wizarding world, she decided to see if she could find anything 'ere instead. But, as she is me best dickhead, as I already mentioned, I respect her decision and am even helping her out in her search for answers. So, with all that said and done, we need some books on the Golden Trio as soon as possible…alright?"

Lily rolled her eyes at her best friend and sighed, ready for Madam Pince to send her and Cass out of the woman's sanctuary of books. But, Lily was surprised when she looked to the librarian and found a rare smile on the woman's face.

"Alright Miss Potter; Miss Burke," Madam Pince answered, nodding to each girl in turn, "I will try to be of as much use to the two of you as I can." The woman stood up, towering over the first years and began to walk quickly towards one of the shelf-lined walls, causing the girls to have to run to keep up with her.

She stopped suddenly in front of an old bookshelf and nimbly plucked a large book from where it sat as if it were a feather and handed it to Lily who almost lost her balance under the sudden weight of the text. This continued for what felt like an hour in the same fashion; Madam Pince would lead the two girls to another shelf, easily take a book from its place, and give it to one of the girls who would, in turn, struggle under the ever-growing weight of the manuscripts. All the while, the librarian would talk about how she was very surprised that 'Mr. Potter would not boast of his feats to his children' and how very much she had 'loved the intelligent Miss Granger', who had apparently been a 'constant figure in the Hogwarts Library' for her first six years of schooling, and then again, when she came back to finish her seventh term one year late.

"My Aunt Hermione left school for a year?" Lily asked the elderly librarian, her wide eyes and gaping mouth the very picture of surprise.

"Well, of course she did Miss Potter." Madam Pince looked down at the redheaded girl as if she had grown an extra limb, which was, in Lily Luna Potter's defense, entirely possible, if not slightly unlikely, in such an institution as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Yeah," Cass's voice sounded from somewhere close behind the first year Potter, who, in her current state of being about buried in the books balancing upon her thin, freckled arms, was unable to turn her head to look upon her best friend as she spoke to the Hogwarts Library's stern ruler, "She dunno much."

"Hmph." Was Madam Pince's unimpressed reply before she resumed finding and adding to the girls' piles of books.

Finally, just as Lily and Cass felt that they might throw their stacks of reading to the library floor, fall on their rears, and burst into tears if they were forced to hear one more story about Miss Potter's 'perfect Uncle Percy' and Miss Burke's 'loudmouthed mother', the librarian stopped. Lily Luna and Cassiopeiae looked up at the woman who smiled down at them, seeming genuinely happy with the two girls. It was then that the friends noticed that their stacks of books had been reduced to about eight for each of them.

"Thank you girls," Madam Pince acknowledged the two, "You have been so helpful, staying long after I said that you had all the reference material I knew of being here about Mr Potter and his exploits. It has been such a long time since anyone has actually helped me organize these books and I wanted to thank you for it. So, for your great helpfulness and courtesy, I reward Slytherin with twenty house points."

The girls looked at each other with exhaustion written across each of their faces before they both burst into happy laughter.

"It was our pleasure, Madam Pince." Lily smiled at the woman as they checked out the books before leaving to get back to the dungeons while still having enough time to grab some supper from the Great Hall.

"Yeah," agreed Cass, "You're pretty alright, Madam Pince, I've never met anyone who actually cared 'bout their job as much as you do. I hope I can someday be doin' somethin' that I care so much 'bout."

The librarian smiled one last time before shooing the two girls off to supper.

* * *

"So," Cass began after practically devouring an entire leg of chicken, "What did we get?"

"Um...well…" Lily began

"Just read 'em off to me!" her best friend ordered before she could end up stuttering so much that nothing could ever be understood

"Good idea." The redhead complimented before picking up each book from the stack in front of her and reading off the title and the name of the author, which Lily Luna Potter felt was just as, if not more, important than what the manuscript was called. "This one," she took a purple and gold hardback from the top of the stack, "is called _Harry Potter: Hero or Murderer?_ It was written by some old journalist for the _Daily Prophet_ named Rita Skeeter, who is the 'bestselling author of _Snape: Scoundrel or Saint_ and other tell-all biographies.'" Lily looked up at her friend, "Is my dad really a murderer?" She asked seriously and looked at her friend in surprise when she suddenly burst into laughter causing a few other Slytherins sitting nearby to turn and see what all the commotion was about.

"Lily Luna, Rita Skeeter's an old hag who should never be trusted by anyone ever again!" Cass exclaimed, much to Lily's confusion, "Just trust me on this one, Lils." The first year amended prompting an agreeable nod from the redhead who resumed her 'reading off' of the books about her father.

Lily grabbed next a much more understated book with a moving black-and-white picture of her father as a teenager with the words '_Undesirable No. 1_' stamped in large script across the top; beneath the picture was her father's first and last name and a warning for anyone who had any information 'concerning his whereabouts' to 'contact the Ministry of Magic immediately' failing to do so would, apparently, 'result in imprisonment'. Then the black and white text went on to declare a 10,000 gallion reward for anyone who was to bring him in. Lily Luna blinked in surprise and then watched with slightly wide eyes as the words suddenly began to change so that they read instead, "_The Hero Whose Name Was Defamed _by Eldred Worple, 'Author of _Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires_'. Why did the Ministry of Magic think that my dad was undesirable?" the youngest Potter asked the question that followed her words about the book she held without taking a breath of transition or looking up at her best friend who was, at that moment, in the process of polishing off yet another leg of some poor, yet tasty, poultry.

"Oh, you'll figure it all out later." Cass said with a mouth full of fowl, waving Lily's inquiry about her father's now apparent-former-life of crime aside before quickly swallowing her food and coaxing the freckle-faced girl to continue, "What's next?"

"Um…well…this one is called _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_ by Dermot Bollymog,"

"Boring!" Cass moaned prompting Lily to roll her hazel eyes in annoyance, "Why are you making me listen to this crap?"

"You _asked_ me to do this for you." The redhead said with a shrug, "It wasn't my idea. I'm easy."

"Then _please_, I'm begging you, do it and be done with it." Cass told her, "Or, at least make these books sound a bit more exciting."

"Alright…"

In the following nineteen remaining minutes of supper, the girls decided to make, for themselves, a record.

Using a crumpled piece of parchment found at the bottom of a pewter cauldron and a muggle writing utensil that was distinctively green in colour, which made Lily Luna Potter feel quite pleased as it reminded her of the twenty gleaming emeralds that Cassiopeiea Burke and she had inadvertently earned for the Slytherin House after they unconsciously assisting Madam Pince in the organization of some of the library's books earlier that same day, the two girls began creating a list of the books that they had checked out from the library; their author or authors, and then, they left room to take notes and write a summary concerning what each book said about Lily's father and other family members that the two found important enough to take note of.

When the two had finally gotten their record sorted, it looked, more or less, like this:

_A Record of Books _

_That Lily Trusts More Than Her Own Best_

_About Why Everybody Gawks at Lily When She_

_That I Was Under the Impression I Had Won the Coin Toss For, So I Should Be Allowed to Call It Whatever I_

_Concerning Lily's Attempts to Understand Why Her Brother Told Her to go to the Library and Research Some of Their Family Members, Particularly, Their Father._

_Record Kept By:_

_Lily Luna Potter and Cassiopeiae Elizabeth Burke_

1. _Harry Potter: Hero or Murderer?__ by Rita Skeeter _

_2. __The Hero Whose Name Was Defamed__ by Eldred Worple _

_3. __Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century__ by Dermot Bollymog _

_4. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume I__ by J. K. Rowling_

_5. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume V__ by J. K. Rowling_

_6. __The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts__ by Eleanor Cleric _

_7. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume IV__ by J. K. Rowling_

_8. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume II__ by J. K. Rowling_

_9. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume VI__ by J. K. Rowling_

_10. __Modern Magical History__ by Nathaniel Filliwilliger_

_11. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume VII__ by J. K. Rowling_

_12._ _The Boy Who Lived and the Man He Has Become__ by Sidney Snaphook_

_13. __The Golden Trio: The Hogwarts Years__ by Amien Chanteuse_

_14. __Closing the Locket: How Potter Defeated Voldemort__ by Gerard Montague_

_15. __Harry Potter: A Biography in Seven Parts Volume III__ by J. K. Rowling_

_16. __The Golden Trio: Following the Dark Lord's Fall__ by Amien Chanteuse_

By the time the two girls had finished, supper was over and they left with the rest of the remaining Slytherin students, making their way down into their Common Room and the dungeons.


	14. First Year 6

During the weeks before the Christmas Holidays, Lily Luna and Cass created, for themselves, a routine.

The friends would wake up early each morning, careful not to rouse the other two first year girls who they roomed with. They would then sneak out into the common area, bringing whatever book they had decided to study that morning with them. There, upon their favourite, dark green leather couch, the girls read the many different ways people had found to tell the same story. It was a story about a boy who grew up with his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin who all hated him, but, then he received a letter, finally delivered by Hagrid, the groundskeeper, himself, at age eleven, telling him that he had been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The rest of the stories were usually filled with magic, war, and, according to Rita Skeeter's version of Harry Potter's life, a great deal of sobbing emerald eyes and snogging. In each of the books, excepting Skeeter's, of course, Voldemort was defeated by Lily Luna's father, who, through this, proved himself to be the hero.

The reading in the early mornings was not only helpful for Lily's understanding of her father, mother, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, but it also brought the redhead and her best friend closer together. While Lily had always known she lacked many things in common with Cassiopeiea Elizabeth Burke, she had never taken the time to find out about all of the things that were alike about the two of them. The one on one time they now spent with each other on such a regular basis was eye opening for the both of them, even if both of them had their eyes trained on a page from some strange, giant book.

Lily Luna Potter learned many things about Cass during those mornings. The redhead learned that, even if her best friend lived in a council estate, it did not deter from the fact that she was still raised in an old Slytherin family and was slightly annoyed with muggles and muggleborns. But, it was made up for by Lily's incessant disgust for Cass's cousin, in at least some form of relation, Scorpius Malfoy, a third year Ravenclaw.

This hate for her relative became Cass's favourite thing to laugh at her best friend about, telling the redhead such things as that the two were meant to be, simply because of their corresponding second names.

"Think about it, Lils." Cass would say, "Luna is moon and Hyperion is sun. You can't get much more 'meant to be' than that."

"I'm sorry Cass but, your cousin is just not my cup of tea." Lily would always reply quickly, as a slight blush rose into her usually pale cheeks, "I find him simply beastly."

"Oh, well aren't we being incredibly posh today!" The black haired girl exclaimed during one of these instances before popping another stick of _Drooble's Best Blowing Gum_ into her mouth and beginning to chew it noisily.

"Hmm…Quite…" Lily had replied without looking up from her book

"How did you become such a _swot_?" Cass asked her friend with a roll of her eyes

"Years and _years_ of practice"

"Lils, you're only eleven…"

That was when the redhead looked back up at her best friend in the world and told her simply, "I'm a prodigy."

After this exchange, Cass never questioned Lily about her early morning word usages again much to the freckled girl's relief.

It was not until the girls had finally gotten into the sixth volume in the multi-part biography written about Lily Luna's father that any of what the smallest Potter was reading clicked in her brain.

"Merlin's pants!" Lily breathed and Cass looked over at her questioningly, "This is all true, isn't it? All this, about my dad?" The raven-haired Burke raised her eyebrows at her friend who only continued, "It's just that it doesn't really _feel_ true. My dad is…well…he's my dad! And this boy named Harry Potter, he's a hero!"

"Well, get it into your head." Cass told her, "Your dad is bloody famous as hell!"

* * *

Later that week Lily and Cass sat before the black marble fireplace in the Slytherin common room after finishing the final book out of the sixteen that Madam Pince had checked out to them. Their faces would have been laughable, if there had been anyone awake at that hour to actually see them. But, there was not, and that was how the girls wanted it anyways. They did not want anyone to see their astonished expressions. They would hate for anyone to snicker at how their eyes bulged out of their sockets and stared, fixedly, at the flames or for someone to come across them when their mouths were currently gaping open with unhinged jaws.

Finally one of them spoke; to this day, neither would be able to tell you exactly which one said what words, but, they would both swear on their paternal grandparents' graves that these are the exact words spoken.

"Sweet F A…" Breathed Cass…or, perchance, Lily Luna.

"Quite." Replied Lily Luna…unless it was _really_ Cass…with a slight nod.

Of course, the conversation that ensued was much easier to pick out who was saying what as there was apparently and awful lot of, "I can't believe mum never told me that cousin Draco almost went to Azkaban!" and, "Who cares about your cousin and what your mum told you about him? My _father_ has apparently _killed_ a guy!"

Of course, Cass tried to calm her best friend down in any way she could think of.

"It was more of an assisted suicide," she said with a shrug, "without the dead bloke actually wanting to die in the first place."

"That means that it's _nothing_ like assisted suicide!" Lily exclaimed, "Merlin! That journalist who used to work for the _Prophet_ was right! Dad is a murderer!"

Cass sighed and rolled her eyes in frustration, "We just finished reading fifteen books all about how ace your dad is and the only one that you _really_ pay attention too is the sixteenth one? Which is written, I might add, by an old hag who should just go and stuff herself!"

"So," Lily began to wipe her tear-brimmed eyes, "you really don't believe that my dad is a bad guy?"

"Oh, put a sock in it Lils." the black-haired girl told her friend, "We may think your dad's right potty, but even us purebloods can see that he's really a hero."

And that was the end of that discussion.

* * *

So, the only things Lily Luna Potter had left to do over the break by the time she and Cass had bid each other farewell at _Platform 9 __3__/__4_, was to confront her father about his part in the most recent war fought by Wizarding Great Britain and then, to tell her family which House she had been Sorted into.

Lily Luna could not decide which one of these two things sounded more terrifying.


	15. First Year 7

"Lily!" James Potter called out, waving at his younger sister to come closer to where he stood with their brother and a gaggle of gingers with much lighter hair than Lily's own red, rather, matching the shade boasted by her mother and eldest brother.

Lily Luna smiled at her favourite sibling and bounded over to where he was and ran towards him, giving him a large bear hug.

"Wow, Lily." A familiar voice came from somewhere to the girl's right and from a place high above her head, "You are acting like you haven't seen your brother in ages!"

"Daddy!" Lily squealed, releasing her grip on James and jumping into her father's strong arms. Her mother appeared behind him and looked sternly down at her eldest son.

"James Sirius Potter," She said in a warning tone, "Have you been ignoring your little sister."

James rolled his hazel eyes, "No mum." He huffed, "Lily and I just don't get to see each other that often, she's not in Gryffindor you know."

Lily watched nervously as her parents and her recently arrived aunts' and uncles' eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Oh?" Lily's father asked her, his gaze flickering to meet his daughter's, "I'm sorry, we just assumed…What house _are _you in Lily Flower?"

"You _still_ haven't told them?" Fred snickered before being bopped over the head by his mother, "Hey, mum!"

"Don't laugh at your cousin." Aunt Angelina scolded her son before turning back to her youngest niece, "Come on dear," She prompted in a much kinder tone, "You can tell us, we don't care if you're not in Gryffindor."

"Yes Lily," the girl's Aunt Hermione agreed, "It doesn't matter what House you're in. Even if you wanted to be in Gryffindor, the Hat always knows where you belong. In fact, before it placed me in Gryffindor, it was thinking about putting me into Ravenclaw. Just like Al and Rose!"

"It was going to put me somewhere else too," Her father added and Lily turned her head so that she was once again face-to-face with the man who was holding her in his arms,

"Where?" she asked

"Slytherin." He laughed, "But, I had just become friends with your Uncle Ron and then I heard Mr Malfoy saying some horrible things about the Weasleys. So I asked the Sorting Hat to put me anywhere other than Slytherin. And, well, Merlin's your uncle!"

Lily, after weighing all the possibilities in her mind, decided that it was time for her to do something drastic, and that drastic thing was blurting loud and proud, "I'm in Slytherin!"

There was a pregnant pause that followed between the Weasley/Potter Family that was present. This silence was only broken by a familiar London accent.

"Well that's brill!" Lucy walked towards her family with a jovial expression on her face and a strange brown drink in her hands in a clear plastic container that read 'Starbucks' on it, "I guess that means that I'm not the only black sheep of the family now!" She smiled at her own humour and then turned to her father and older sister, "Dad, Molly, mum says she wants to go home so she can catch some show she's been just dying to see on the telly and she wants to know if the two of you are gonna go back to the flat or do something else so that she knows whether to wait for your 'magic pixie dust' or to just take the tube."

Uncle Percy looked at the rest of the family with a small tug of a smile at the corners of his lips, "Well, when Audrey starts calling Floo Powder 'magic pixie dust' it is my cue to leave." He said with a wave and began to walk away with Molly close behind him, but then he turned to look back at his youngest daughter, "Lucy? Aren't you coming home with us?"

Lucy grinned back at her father before replying, "I'd rather stay with Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny tonight," She called back to him before remembering to ask her relatives' permission, "That is, if it's alright with the both of you."

Lily turned to look pleadingly into her father's eyes, which were right at her level as he was still holding her, "Please daddy? Please? Can't Lucy stay the night?" She begged him and then turned her big hazel eyes on her mother who did not even need to be asked.

"Well," Her mother said, "I suppose, but this does not mean we're through with our little conversation about why you didn't tell your father and I about your sorting."

Lily's eyes brightened, "Oh! Thank you mummy!"

She jumped down from her father's arms and ran over to join Lucy in order to ask her about what in Merlin's name she was drinking and, while they were on the subject, what a 'Starbucks' was.

She left the adults confused and the kids unimpressed.

"Slytherin?" Ron squeaked, looking over at Harry questioningly, "Your daughter's in Slytherin?"

"Merlin Ronald!" Hermione smacked her husband on the shoulder, "I meant it when I said that it doesn't matter where she is sorted. Though I _am_ a bit surprised…"

"I'm not; Lily _does_ live up to all of Slytherin's expectations." Ginny told her sister-in-law, "She is never impulsive, always thinking of every possible way a situation could end up and which of these endings would benefit her the most. She's also a Parseltongue, she's resourceful, she's determined-"

"She possesses 'a certain disregard for the rules'" Harry interrupted his wife quietly, looking over at his enthusiastic daughter who was in the middle of a very serious discussion with her cousin over muggle coffee drinks with a small smile and a nostalgic look in his eyes

"Anyways, I believe that if the Hat put Lily in Slytherin, then, well, she shouldn't be anywhere else!" Ginny said matter-of-factly, which produced nods from all the other adults, accepting Ron who was still muttering to himself about complaining to Hollybeak and demanding a re-sort.

"Oh, come off it Ron." George exclaimed, "at least it's not your little Rosie-Posie!"

This earned him only glares and a cuff on his good ear from his wife.


	16. First Year 8

As soon as she arrived in the kitchen fireplace of 12 Grimmauld Place Lily raced up the old stone stairs, taking them two by two, calling out, "Sashi! I'm home!"

Lucy exited out of the green flames coughing and waving her hands to try and disperse the smoke which was, at the moment, slowly filling up her mouth, throat, and lungs.

"Where is she going?" The squib managed to croak before another coughing fit forced her to stop talking

"To see if that bloody serpent died or not." Albus replied with a frown from where he sat on a couch nearby the fireplace.

Ginny looked down at her son disapprovingly and clucked her tongue at him before opening the small door of the boiler room and calling inside, "Kreacher! Come on out! The kids are home for the Holidays!" The ginger haired woman called for the family's house-elf, who her husband allowed to stay and work in the once House of Black, much to Lucy's Aunt Hermione's dislike.

The old, though energetic, house-elf practically jumped, as well as one could at his age, out of his little makeshift home and went to greet the newly arrived Potter children.

"Kreacher is glad to see that my young masters have returned from school unharmed." He said, shaking James's hand and then Albus's, "But Kreacher thought he heard young mistress coming home too. Where is my young mistress now?" Kreacher's gaze fell upon Lucy who was now looking, sadly, at the sooty and melted remains that were the contents of her plastic to-go-cup and the house-elf smiled, "Aw! It is Kreacher's young masters' and young mistress's squib cousin who has come again to visit Master Harry's family!" He exclaimed before hobbling back into his cupboard and returning soon after with an old, but pristine, rag which he used to gingerly snatch the plastic cup of the now-ruined Tall Frappuccino out of Lucy's grasp and disposing of it in the kitchen rubbish bin.

"Hey!" Lucy cried after him but he only turned around with a glare on his face and replied,

"Kreacher did not think the squib wanted to continue staring at her trash forever. So Kreacher did his job and tidied up the mess."

This prompted both James and Albus to snicker and Lucy to blush slightly in both irritation and discomfiture.

"Kreacher," Ginny said as she dashed around the kitchen, looking for something quick to eat that did not require too much preparation on her part and finally settled on a red apple, "I have to get back to the office to finish tomorrow's article on today's game between the Tarapoto Tree-Skimmers and Lancashire and Harry was brought back to the Ministry for some reason that he won't say anything about. So, I need you to make the kids supper and have them unpack and make sure that they wash and have them in bed on time and-"

"We get it mum!" Albus groaned, cutting off his mother

"Kreacher will do as Mistress Ginny tells him." The house-elf nodded to her and she waved before throwing more Floo Powder into the fireplace, taking one last bite of her apple, and then disappearing, core and all, into the bright green flames.

Without her aunt running anxiously about the room, Lucy finally had time to look around and enjoy the Potter family's enormous basement kitchen.

Now, the kitchen was not new to Lucy Weasley in the least as she used to be at 12 Grimmauld Place almost constantly for parties and sleepovers and play dates. But, all that changed when eleven year old Lucy did not receive her letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was, soon after, proclaimed a squib. The girl's visits became far less frequent, not because the Potters had any qualms about her lack of magical ability. No, _that_ idea was quite laughable, in fact. The _real_ reason that Lucy Weasley stopped hanging around the Potter home at the age of eleven was that she started going to a maintained school for muggles in London, England.

Starting school so late and without any formal study of the muggles' National Curriculum, Lucy found that catching up was a seemingly impossible task. That is, until she sat down with her mother and began to take home tutoring lessons from her. Of course she had been taught almost everything she needed to know for English, a subject that she found quite easy in comparison to anything about technology, as her father and mother found knowledge of one's own language extremely important. Her mother had even gotten a Master's Degree in English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics at King's College London and had become a professor of English Studies at King's after being prompted to do so by her husband whom she had actually first met when she had collided with him outside UCL around the time when she was working on getting her BA in English Linguistics. So, Lucy had little to no trouble in _that_ area of studies. She was on par with her peers in Religious Education as her entire family were practising members of the Church of England and she had read and been read to verses out of the _Book of Common Prayer _and the _Book of Common Worship_. She was athletic and struggled just as much as anyone else would in Physical Education. In Art and Design Lucy excelled dramatically, causing her teachers and peers to praise her talents even at her young age. She was alright in music but lacked any since of rhythm. But, then there were the subjects that magical folk never really needed to understand. For example, other than a basic knowledge, unless you wished to become an Arithmancer, Lucy fell far behind in muggle Maths. She understood wizarding Geography but, somehow the non-magical version of the world's topography puzzled her to no end. The same held true for muggle History. But, then there came Science, the muggle version of magic, and Information and Communication Technology, something that had to do with things called computers, and then there was Design Technology. D.T. was a subject that Lucy thought she should understand but, was constantly failing at. Put clubs and social life into the mix and one can see why Lucy Weasley stopped frequenting the Potter home.

So, when fifteen year old Lucy was finally given another chance to take a gander at one of her old haunts, she was thrilled. The teenager noted everything she saw in the form of a picture that she painted mentally for herself on something that she called her 'mind easel'. But, not as much as Lucy was expecting had seemed to change around 12 Grimmauld Place, at least, not that Lucy could see from where she stood inside the family's huge basement kitchen.

There was still an unbelievably long, wooden table with, at least, twelve matching wooden chairs set around it. The oven on the wall was the same, ancient looking one that she and Lily had burned their fingers on when Lucy was about nine years of age. The girl could also still see the small stain in the sofa, even though it was now very worn, that Albus had made when Fred had given him a Nosebleed Nugget for Christmas. The wallpaper was still covered in an intricate design that was constantly changing; moving its way through, over, and around itself like serpents. Even the flowers placed in a vase and sat in a place of honour at the centre of the long, wooden table were the same kind that had been there when she had last gazed inside the Potters' home. They were purple pansies in a ceramic vase that Lucy had made as one of her first muggle art projects and had given to her aunt and uncle one Christmas. Lucy smiled and thought back on the days when everything about life as a squib was even more magical and exciting then magic itself but was quickly brought back into the present when the sound of small feet banged against each stone step on the narrow stairwell leading down into the basement loudly before she finally entered the room.

At the sight of her cousin, Lucy smiled, Kreacher was about to have one of the best surprises he had ever had in his lifetime. Kreacher's favourite 'young mistress' was a member of the house of Slytherin.


	17. First Year 9

Lily Luna Potter was not unhappy. Her snake, Sashi, Parseltongue for 'love', was well and sleeping off an extremely large rat currently taking a trip through the serpent's digestive system. Her parents and other adult family members who so far knew of her house status seemed, for the most part, undeterred by her announcement at King's Cross Station earlier that same day, excepting, of course, her Uncle Ron, who couldn't keep himself from raging about something done by some Slytherin at one point or another for five seconds.

Lily Luna Potter was not unhappy about being home for the Christmas Holidays; she was not unhappy that her favourite cousin still loved her. She was not unhappy about seeing Kreacher the house-elf once again. She was not unhappy that she was not in school, even if it the break time allotted to the Hogwarts students felt like it would begin and then be over with in the time it took Sashi to digest that rat.

Lily Luna Potter was also not unhappy that Lucy was staying the night once again, just as she had done before she got too caught up in her non-magical existence to even visit anymore. Lily Luna Potter was not unhappy. But, the thing that Lily Luna Potter was the most 'not unhappy' about was that she had been sorted into Slytherin.

This was because, the youngest of the Potter/Weasley Clan had many astonishingly good things had happened to her, just because she had been sorted into Salazar's House.

She had met her best friend, Cassiopeiae Burke. She had learned the _real_ reason people always looked at her father and mother when they passed by in the streets and why people crowded around him and her Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron when they were in public; asking for the three to 'please just sign' many different things. Some were normal, like a notebook or a photograph but then there were the ones that Lily could not help but find just plain crazy. One man had asked for Lily Luna's father to sign his favourite owl, which was, apparently, only the stuffed skin of the man's loyal bird.

Lily also had Slytherin to thank for her newfound love of the piano. She had never played the instrument, not even the one in her own home, until she was taught how to make the most lovely sound come out of the one that stood proud and tall in the Slytherin common room by a seventh year snake named Marcus Theoric. She remembered how his short, stubby fingers appeared to belong to someone completely lacking in musical prowess. But, Marcus showed her, as well as everyone else before her, that you should never judge a musician by the appearance of their instrument. He played the piano and wrote melodies that were magic in themselves. He was a Slytherin who had the ambition necessary for him to go on and become the century's greatest wizarding composer.

So, that was what she was thinking when she stomped down the narrow stone steps into the basement kitchen, taking them two at a time. She was thinking about how and why she was not unhappy and one of the reasons that she was not unhappy at that moment, maybe her most important reason of all, was because she had been sorted into Slytherin.

She pushed a smile to her lips at the sight of her favourite cousin, two brothers, and the Potters' house-elf all waiting for her downstairs. She looked at the group, Albus was lounging on the sofa nearby the fire, James was scouring the cabinets for food, Lucy was looking at her but her expression was a bit far off and dreamy, as if she had not yet been awakened, and good old Kreacher was swatting away James's wandering hands, searching for food, as the house-elf made the three children and their guest supper.

"Hiya Kreacher!" The eleven year old girl greeted the greying house-elf cheerfully

"Kreacher is happy to see that his young mistress is looking so healthy." Kreacher told her with a grin, but he did not leave his pot of broth for even a second to give the young girl a warm handshake for fear that it would boil over and he would ruin the hard wood countertops of the enormous kitchen. And so, the house-elf instead asked his young mistress which house she had been sorted into.

"Slytherin." The girl said with a small smile and Kreacher almost forgot the broth that was on its way to boiling at that moment and hobbled over to Lily to pull her into a tight hug.

But, instead of risk both the broth and the countertops for a quick, congratulatory embrace, the house-elf instead decided to smile his biggest, gummy smile and said, "Finally! Kreacher has been wondering who to give Master Regulus's things after Kreacher is dead. So, I thought to myself, a very long time ago, that they should go to a Slytherin, just like he was, who has a good heart, just like Master Regulus's."

"Oh, please Kreacher!" The little eleven year old girl exclaimed, "Don't talk like that! You have outlived so many other masters, you can't ever leave us!"

"Kreacher would be most pleased if Young Mistress Lily would be so kind as to stop yelling so loud at me." Kreacher asked the girl carefully, still not used to being treated as something a bit more than a slave, "And now, I will explain Kreacher's reasoning. Kreacher doesn't wish to die but, someday, I know that Kreacher will and, on that day, Kreacher has to know that Master Regulus and all the other Black Family possessions that Master Harry Potter allows Kreacher to keep will be in a good, kind hearted, Slytherin's hands. Kreacher is thinking of this as a sort of insurance."

"Well, I guess that _does_ sound better than a Will." Lily mused and was so lost in her thoughts that she did not hear her cousin coming closer to her until she suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. Lily jumped high into the air in her surprise, causing her brothers and Lucy to laugh at her fear.

"You should have seen yourself, Lils!" Albus teased her, "You jumped higher than a Kneazle!"

"Yeah, I'd bet you against mean old Crookshanks any day." James snorted

"But, that isn't fair!" Lucy complained jovially through her giggles, "Crookshanks is only _half_-Kneazle and, anyways, he's got arthritis in his legs."

"Ha ha ha!" Lily watched the three with an expression that lacked any of their amusement, "Just you wait!" She then grinned evilly and held her arms up in front of her with her hands mimicking claws, "I could cast the _wrath of Slytherin_ on all three of you!"

That was when the youngest of the children joined in on the giggles and the eldest one opted out with a small frown.

"Wait," said Lucy Weasley cautiously, "What's the _Wrath of Slytherin_? Is that _really_ a thing?"

Albus rolled his eyes at his cousin, "No wonder they say that Molly is the smart one out of the two of you." He groaned, causing Lily to look over at him crossly before telling her cousin that it was only a joke.

"It was still pretty daft of you to fall for!" James exclaimed, "I mean, the _Wrath of Slytherin_? Really?"

"Oi! Belt up!" Lucy ordered him, "If you haven't noticed, I don't really need to know anything about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry anymore."

"Oh, about that!" James blurted out, patting the chair beside his at the long wooden dining table, "I've got some questions to ask you about being a…you know…a…"

"Squib?" Lucy finished for him with a roll of her eyes but she accepted his request to sit down by him, "So, what do you want to know?"

"What's it like to go to school with muggles?" James asked her

"It's fine for me." Lucy shrugged, "You know, I never _did_ fit in with the whole 'Weasley family of magic' because, well, I'm not magic. But, I still don't totally fit in with most of my schoolmates. I mean, they see the magic, staring them blatantly in the face, and they still don't really _see_ it at all!" She sighed before her lips suddenly quirked into a small smile and she continued, "There _is _one boy though, who sees the magic. He's my age, so he can't be a wizard, and both of his parents are muggles, so he isn't another squib. But, somehow, he still notices what everyone else seems to just miss."

"What's this bloke's name?" asked Albus, who seemed to have been quite drawn in by his cousin's words.

"Oh, well, I'm not going to tell you _that_. You'd just go and harass him." Lucy shook her head, "He may _notice_ the magic, but _I_ haven't breathed a word about squibs, wizards, witches, muggles, or hedgehogs to him once." She smirked at her cousins, "I've learned over the years to never talk about magic outside of the family." She stood up, "Now, if you don't mind, mum told me to call her at around 21:00 and I should probably start looking for mobile reception outside of the house…" Lucy looked over at Kreacher who now had multiple dishes stirring and baking all by themselves whilst he still focused on the broth before she stood and bounded up the stone staircase.


	18. First Year 10

The moment the green smoke had lifted from around her Lily Luna Potter was greeted with the familiar sights and smells unique to Christmas at the Burrow. She smiled genuinely as she took in the scent of Butterbeer that had been sent to the Weasleys as a gift from the old man who owned The Hog's Head in Hogsmeade Village, mince pie, and Grandmum Weasley's Christmas cake cooking in the oven. But, all too soon Lily Luna felt a tug on the bottom of her jumper as a familiar, little hand pulled her out of the fireplace and into the cosy living room.

Lily Luna looked down to see her seven-year-old godbrother Lysander Scamander tugging her over to where his twin Lorcan sat with their parents. The redhead smiled at the Scamanders who grinned back. The woman, Luna, stood up dreamily and greeted her goddaughter with a warm hug and softly-placed kiss on the forehead. The girl of eleven couldn't help herself from marvelling silently at the blonde woman's grace and poise as, all the while, Lily now knew the stories of Luna Scamander's trials during the Second Wizarding War. She had duelled against Death Eaters, fought for the memory of the dead Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and had even been held as a hostage in some dark basement of Malfoy Manor, the very same Malfoy Manor that Cass would be eating her Christmas Eve dinner at right then Lily realised with a slight shudder.

"My, Lily!" Luna exclaimed sweetly, "When did you become so quiet? Has a Lockington Kackleworthy got your tongue?"

Lily giggled at the strange name of the 'creature' her godmother had just referenced and answered the woman by shrugging her shoulders, a response that those who knew Lily Luna Potter very well had come to understand as meaning she 'had no words'. Lorcan, eternally oblivious to others, did not receive the hint that the rest of the Scamanders had understood immediately. Still curios over his mother's seemingly ridiculous question, the boy decided to prod the issue further.

"Well Lily?" the little boy asked, facing her straight on and his little voice demanding that the older girl look down so that his light-blue eyes could meet her own hazel ones, "_Has_ a Lockington Kackleworthy got your tongue?"

The seriousness of the child and the demand that surged through the boys voice caused Lily's so-far-quiet godfather to laugh so hard that his Butterbeer squirted out of his nostrils and Lysander to turn and look at his father with a worried expression across his little face.

In contrast, Luna paid no mind to her husband's outburst and simply smiled at Lily and then turned to look dreamily down at her serious son who still stood steadily with arms crossing his chest.

"Let's let Lily go and do something else, alright Lorcan? She doesn't want to talk to us right now and is just too polite to say so."

The boy nodded up at his mother and the Scamanders waved jovially at Lily Luna Potter as she left them to disappear into the crowd.

* * *

For the next half-hour Lily was surrounded by family saying hello to her, telling her how much she had grown, and asking her just _how _such a nice girl like herself could have ended up in Slytherin. It was an extreme relief when Uncle George came through the door with a box of Christmas goodies for the younger guests to distract themselves with.

Cribbages were handed out by Uncle George and the younger Weasleys, Potters, and Scamanders all took part in a game of Wizard Cracker Pop-it. It was great fun for all until Grandmum Weasley came into the living room, having smelled the smoke, and ordered the children to take their game outside. Perfectly content in that as long as they were still able to continue playing, the youngest invitees were more than happy to get all bundled up in their warmest clothing and make their way out into the snow that lay in heaps around the Burrow.

Lily and her family and friends tugged and yanked at either side of the wizard crackers, tearing them apart one by one with great gusto. They laughed as they caused explosion after explosion to bring life to the dark night that lay around them. Finally the fun was over with all of the crackers gone and Grandmum Weasley called the children in for Christmas Eve Dinner.

As Lily Luna took her spot between her dad and James she grinned widely while she showed her father her wears. In her cracker there had been an eccentric jester's cap with bells hanging from it and a motley pattern covering the fabric which the redhead now wore excitedly. She had also found a Screaming Yo-yo in the wizard cracker that gave her cause to smile and now clutch it in her lap while she sat at the long wooden table.

Grandmum Weasley waved her wand and the entire party laughed at the startled sound made by Aunt Audrey who, even after twenty-one years' worth of Weasley Christmases, still found magic an extremely surprising matter. She clutched Uncle Percy's arm with one hand and her chest with the other and smirked at Grandmum Weasley.

"Molly, you mustn't do that! I could have a hard attack on Christmas Eve!" She exclaimed with a wink in the old woman's direction causing another jovial uproar to emanate from Uncle George's side of the table.


	19. First Year 11

Lily made her way past the many compartments of the Hogwarts Express, looking for one that happened to be occupied by her best friend, Cassiopeiea Burke. Sighing in defeat the little redhead took another look around the train before gasping as an owl whizzed past her head.

"Hey!" Lily cried, turning around just in time to see a tall, skinny blonde boy with pasty skin and grey eyes running straight in her direction.

The girl had only enough time to shout in protest before she was lying flat on her back, all the air knocked out of her lungs. The boy who had pushed her down blushed fiercely as he scrambled to his feet, brushing off his black school robes before offering the girl a helping hand.

Lily looked at the hand for a moment distastefully and then back at the boy. Still, never one to let an offer of aid go unutilized, the youngest of the Potter siblings grabbed hold of the older student's arm and allowed him to help her up.

She scowled as she inspected her new 'L' sweater for any damage that it might have sustained.

"I'm sorry Lily Luna." The boy apologised to her with an expression on his face that made him look as if he was about to lose the contents of his stomach on her causing Lily to back up away from him a little bit further before shrugging in response and casting a glare at him, turning her back to the older boy.

But, she did not get very far from where she had started before she heard the boy call out for her again.

"Lily Luna?" He said, "I didn't mean to do that but I was chasing my new owl, you see, because he escaped from his cage-"

"I don't want to help you Malfoy." Lily told him before he got the chance to ask.

"Of course you don't!" Scorpius snarled back at her angrily, "You're just as much of a mean old snake as everyone says you are!"

Then Lily Luna Potter had her wand out and was holding it pointed at the floor with so tight a fist that her knuckles were becoming whiter and whiter each moment.

"Why don't you ever say anything?" Malfoy asked her in frustration, "You are by far the hardest person to deal with in the world!"

Lily pursed her lips to keep from speaking impulsively and went through all of the different actions she could take in this situation and all of these actions' separate outcomes. She reasoned with herself that while she didn't like the boy, he hadn't done much to warrant her anger. He may simply have a bad temper and become frustrated easily. Still, it didn't mean she had to befriend him, it just meant she should probably take even more care to keep away from Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy from then on.

Lily Luna Potter pocketed her wand and found an empty compartment, still not seeing any sign of the elusive Cass.

Lily sighed as she flopped down onto one cushioned seat as the train began to move out of King's Cross; it was going to be a long, dull journey to Hogsmeade Station without her best friend to talk to and she was too angry to play with her father's cloak or the Marauders' Map this time around.


	20. First Year 12

Lily lay on the bottom bunk of the bunk-bed she shared with Cass in the dormitories inhabited by the four Slytherin first year girls. She thought about how Christmas had gone splendidly this year, no matter the fact that she had been oddly sorted into a seemingly wrong house. Her family had still loved her though she was also being grilled with questions by everyone, even Uncle Charlie who she thought would be one of the most accepting of her placement. But, all in all, Christmas at the Burrow had gone simply swimmingly for Lily Luna Potter.

"Oi!" A familiar voice hollered at the redhead as another girl with long, black hair stocked into the room, "Why 're ya' laying on me bed? Right, budge up!" Cass glared at Lily who simply snorted in response moving her feet to create a larger space for her best friend to sit down.

"What's got _your_ knickers in a twist?" she queried as her best friend dropped down onto the bunk beside the area where Lily's feet were laying, "I haven't seen you this upset since Thomas caught you cheating off his papers during the Potions middle of the year exams and took it up with Slughorn."

"You weren't there that day," Cass shrugged, "What was I supposed to do? Fail?"

"You _did _fail. My having Diminutive Cockatrice Syndrome does not mean that you can _fail_." The redhead pointed out, causing the darker haired girl to narrow her eyes and throw a pillow at her.

"Only barely!" The eleven-year-old protested, shielding her face as the pillow came flying back at her from where Lily now sat up right opposite Cass on the bed.

"You got a _Troll_!" Lily emphasised her words to show Cass just how important it was that she listen to and understand them, "A _Troll_!"

"Well ya' don't have to keep waffling on about it!"

Lily sat back in silence and watched her tired-looking friend flop back onto the bed so that her black hair splayed out behind her head like some kind of dark halo.

"I wish that I could skive off Herbology tomorrow." Cassiopeiae groaned.

"Tomorrow's the first day back in classes! You are going."

"What if I don't want to?" Cass asked Lily with a smirk.

"Well, then, I suppose I'll just have to drag you by your hair."

Cass gasped and clutched her dark tresses using her hands to create a protective shield between Lily and her obsidian locks.

"You wouldn't!"

Lily simply shrugged and carelessly laid back on the bed. Yes, like Christmas, this school year had been going quite well for the young Lily Luna Potter.


	21. First Year 13

Lily Luna Potter had begun to find that she hated art. No, she did not just simply 'hate' art, Lily Luna Potter loathed it. She despised the endless lessons consisting of such dry topics as 'how to draw a proper line', 'what constitutes a circle', and 'when to start thinking you might have bestowed upon your masterpiece too much free will'. The entire subject bored her to no end and it was a wonder to the young Slytherin how she had not yet died of tedium during one of Madame Gillywead's more mind-numbing lectures.

Now, don't get the underage witch wrong, she still adored her cousin Lucy and all that the girl could achieve with such dreary muggle tools that Lily Luna could not even hope to realise with her advanced, magical, wizarding equipment provided by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to all of its incoming arts students.

At their sleepover Lucy had told the younger girl that she just needed to practice more and develop her 'own artistic style' which Lily Luna found to be interesting at the time but now looking back on it realised to be a stinking load of dragon dung. No matter how hard the small redhead tried and no matter how much time and energy the girl put into those times of her practicing, she never seemed to get any better. In fact, Lily Luna Potter had been beginning to think that she was starting to get worse due to the fact that the pictures she drew as a child, usually made for good old Kreacher, which still hung inside the small boiler room back at Number 12 Grimmauld Place appeared to be better works of art than those she made today.

Thus was the reason Lily Luna was walking out of the arts classroom where she took both muggle and normal art with a frown on her face and a hunch in her back.

The girl glared at Malfoy who was walking out with a tiny smile on his usually shy face after being praised by Madame Gillywead for his unparalleled talent of grasping at any viewers heart with his works and twisting it and tugging it until it bleed upon the very floor upon which they stood.

Even when she spoke in a monotone, Madame Gillywead was quite the drama queen.

Lily Luna tried to remember if her father ever took any extracurriculars other than Quidditch but gave up when nothing else came to mind. She was so tied up with her thoughts, however, that she did not notice the trap she was scuttling into until she felt herself run into a tall, thin, and distinctively male frame.

"Hello Lily Luna." Malfoy began, biting his bottom lip nervously as he waited for the first year to reply.

"What do you want Malfoy?" Lily Luna questioned the older boy, searching for any route of escape that did not concern her racing straight back into the decidedly unattractive den of Madame Gilywead but found none.

"I wanted to apologise…" Malfoy began, stammering slightly, "For how I acted on the train home from London. That was not very mature of me."

"That was a _month _ago Malfoy." The redhead emphasized as she glared up at the third year boy who seemed like he was having a difficult time keeping himself from glaring right back down at her.

"I am still very sorry." He told her matter-of-factly as he stared into her hazel eyes with a look that advertised some sort of great frustration.

They stayed like this, silently staring the other one down, until they were suddenly interrupted by a loud voice that cut through the icy tension which surrounded Scorpius and Lily Luna like a knife.

"Are you upsetting me mates again Scor?" Cass wondered as she made her way to where her cousin and her best friend stood glaring at one another.

The raven-haired girl took Lily Luna's arm gently, leading her fellow first year away.

"Don't listen to him," Cass whispered into Lily Luna's ear, "he's just jealous that we're in Slytherin and he got sorted into Ravenclaw."

The red-head nodded in agreement as she turned her head to take one last look at Malfoy before her and Cass turned a corner and she lost sight of him.


End file.
